[Pizmonim le-moʿadim, le-Shabatot, ule-hizdamnuyot shonot]. [פזמונים למועדים, לשבתות ולהזדמנויות שונות]. [Corpus of 124 poems and hymns for special occasions, many unpublished, some in Judaeo-Italian].

Description

Hebrew title supplied by cataloguer. English title derived from Roth, "Catalogue", in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 48.


Summary

Incomplete (see below note on state of text); written on very fine paper with watermark border.

Only the rectos of folios 1–143 only are inscribed (folios 40v, 42v, 107v are probably later additions); until folio 106 all rectos have a running title ‏(‏״‏פזמונים‏״‏)‏, and catchwords; the hymns are numbered with Hebrew letters from ‏א‏ to ‏פט‏. After folio 106, the layout changes, and there are no more running titles, catchwords, and numberings of the poems.

There is an index on folios 141–144 which follows the organisation of the hymns; folios 141r–143r of the index are written in neat square script; 143v–144v are written in cursive.

The hymns on folios 106–140, and 145–155 are written likely by a least three additional hands; many of the added compositions are in Judaeo–Italian (see the following note).

None of the first 89 hymns have instructions regarding their use or author.


Among the hymns are:

‏שאו שערים ראשיכם‏ (folio 1r, no. 1) for Śimḥat Torah (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 3, 405, no. 51); ‏ידידי את אהוב‏ (folios 1r–3r, no. 2) for Śimḥat Torah (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 2, 280, no. 484); ‏שלום לבן דודי‏ נט (folio 3r, no. 3) by Shelomoh ibn Gabirol (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 3, 463, no. 1224); ‏יונה מה תהגי‏ (folios 3r–5r, no. 4) by Yehudah ha-Levi, for Sukot (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 2, 353, no. 2040); ‏שולומית שובי נא‏ (folios 5r–6r, no. 5) by Shelomoh ben Mazal Ṭov, for Śimḥat Torah (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 3, 433, no. 648); חושה לעזרתי אמיץ‏ (folios 6r–7r, no. 6) for Śimḥat Torah (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 2, 229, no. 140); ‏אחר נוגנים אשיר‏ (folios 7r–9r, no. 7) by Shelomoh ben Mazal Ṭov, for Śimḥat Torah (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 1, 121, no. 2568); משיח וגם אליהו‏ (folios 9r–10r, no. 8), for Śimḥat Torah (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 3, 189, no.
2583(; אדיר לא ינום‏ (folios 27r–30, no. 25) for weddings (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 1, 53, no. 1110); אליכם נאמנו אזכרה (folios 30r–31r, no. 26) (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 1, 235, no. 5118); ביום זה נגיל (folios 41–43, no. 34) (not in Davidson); יקרבנו י׳׳י לעבודתך‏ (folio 53r, no. 55) for Purim (Davidson, Otsar, vol. 2, 427, no. 2657); מגא ראש מהם‏ (folios 105r–106r, no. 89) (not in Davidson); the first addition (folio 107) starts: ‏פזמון חדש לחן קוואנטי מהי פיליצי סיהטי‏:‏ ‏שומר שבת מצוה‏ רבה עץ חיים היא.


Judaeo-Italian hymns:

‏פורים‏:‏ דיאמו גלוריא אל קריאטור‏, for Purim, in Judaeo-Italian and Hebrew (folios 115r–120r);

‏של פסח‏:‏ דייאמו גלוריה הל קראטור קיאנדו‏, for Pesaḥ (folios 137r–138r);

‏,חנוכה‏:‏ דייאמו גלוריה אל קראטורי קון ריסמטו‏ for Ḥanukah in Judaeo-Italian and Hebrew (folio 153).


State of text: Incomplete; several leaves are missing (fragment of folio קיח extant and inserted into correct place); some ink seepage, staining, and wear; the item underwent conservation work.


Bibliographical note:

Roth, "Catalogue", in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 48.

National Library of Israel (NLI), Online Catalogue, system-no. 990001856360205171. The NLI’s description is based on the microfilm of MS Roth 48 made on behalf of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts of the NLI during the 1960s. The microfilm can now be downloaded in a digitised form from the NLI-webpage.

Davis, Handlist 164 (Leeds, 2005), no. 48.

Decoration

Folios 1–105:

Decoration 1:Running titles

Decoration 2: Refrains are stressed with three points above the word.

Decoration 3: The completion of every hymn is marked by תם.

Decoration 4: Carefully executed uniform layout and poetic spacing.

Decoration 5: Catchwords.

Physical characteristics

Script: Italian Hebrew script.

Ms. codex: width 123mm height 172mm

Binding

Late 20th-century full leather binding over boards with blind tooling imitating that of the damaged original binding which was removed by conservation (original boards with full vellum cover are kept with the item); red text block edges.

Vocalisation and cantillation

Not vocalised except hymn on folios 149r–150v.

Scribal information

In folios 1–105 at least 4 different substitutions for the Tetragrammaton are used (see, for example, 1v, 5r, 10r, 14r) all of them are recurring in later folios; yet, other para-scriptural elements as well as the general layout remain stable, which suggests that the first 105 leaves were possibly written by one hand despite the different substitutions for the Tetragrammaton.

Former owners and annotations

In folios 1–105 at least 4 different substitutions for the Tetragrammaton are used (see, for example, 1v, 5r, 10r, 14r) all of them are recurring in later folios; yet, other para-scriptural elements as well as the general layout remain stable, which suggests that the first 105 leaves were possibly written by one hand despite the different substitutions for the Tetragrammaton.

Folios 106–155 are written by several additional Italian Hebrew hands.

Access and usage

Access

This material is not subject to restrictions under Data Protection or other relevant legislation that might limit access. However, other protections, such as donor conditions or conservation considerations, may still apply where advised.

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